The events in Boston, two weeks ago, numerous conversations I’ve had with forum friends in the doomer community every time such events happen and a conversation with a poster to the comments section of last week’s blog post have set me to wondering, over the last few days, whether I am, in fact, a conspiracy theorist.

The answer I’ve come up with is a fairly firm, “No.” For example, I don’t believe 9/11 was a vast covert operation by elements of the government – much to the chagrin of some of my doomer friends. On the other hand, I do think it entirely possible that elements of the government, whether through simple hubris or deliberate choice, ignored warnings that led directly to the attack, then used that attack quite deliberately to whip up public support for wars against both Afghanistan and Iraq and the building of a massive security apparatus to protect itself as the Empire enters decline.

Nor do I believe that every notable incident, from mass shootings to hurricanes and super storms is a red flag, black ops, HARRP induced, UN sponsored attempt to take away our “freedoms”. However, I do see these incidents used ever more frequently as propaganda tools in which we are encouraged by the government to see danger everywhere, trust each other less and give up ever more “freedoms” – in the cause of national security – on our own.

In that sense, it really doesn’t matter at this point, whether or not the government committed any or all of these events. Either way, they have been successfully used by the government to accomplish those things noted in the previous paragraph with surprisingly little backlash from the average American.

As I pointed out last week, I do find it curious that the government does not see, nor are we pressed to see the hugely more dangerous and deadly actions of risk-taking bankers, greedy corporate boards and careless company executives as greater threats to the life of the nation than a nineteen-year-old “terrorist”. Of course, the needs those insiders to perpetuate itself at home and abroad, whatever danger they pose to those of us who comprise the nation.

While the mass shooter, the careless company executive and the terrorist are capable of the same amount of damage to the homeland, in terms of lives lost or damage to infrastructure, only the terrorist presents a direct challenge to the story of benign intervention around the world, that the Empire tells about itself. And that challenge is especially threatening to an Empire entering collapse.

Which brings us back to conspiracy theories. Why doesn’t the Empire see those stories as a threat? Surely the rantings of Alex Jones, Glenn Beck and, perhaps, even those similarly minded doomers I know, represent a threat to that story as well, don’t they?

Probably not. For one thing, they don’t have the same traction – at home or abroad – as stories of evil terrorists out to destroy our freedoms. Nor do they challenge the story of benign intervention by the Empire in the same way as direct attacks by individuals from nations who have been ravaged by those interventions, but are too powerless to declare an outright war.

And, in their own way, such conspiracies are useful to a fading Empire in keeping us divided and afraid. Even as the costs of problems such as diminishing resources, climate change and economic instability increase, we become increasingly unable to mount a challenge to the spending priorities of an Empire that must now defend itself, at any cost, from the very enemies it has created.

Eventually, if history is an accurate guide, the expense of defending the Empire will prove so costly to the average American, that even the story of benign intervention will not quell our anger. At that point, we become the enemy. If we are so busy divining the entrails of the latest conspiracy theory as to whether this piece of legislation or that one will be the one that will let them take our guns away, sell us out to the UN/Illuminati/black helicopter guys, turn our property over to Monsanto/Goldman Sachs/Exxon Mobil or open the gates to the Democrats/Republicans anti-gun/pro-gun/ Christian/Muslims/Atheist crackpots trying to take over the country, we will never see it coming.

At that point, they won’t bother with new laws to do any of the above, if they feel the need to do them. At the point where the Empire finds itself desperate enough that we’ve become the enemy, they will simply kick in the door (or its equivalent) and twist the laws already in place to justify it. If they feel justification is necessary. Historically, that’s what empires in collapse do.

So, no, I’m not much of a conspiracy theorist – not that I think governments can’t and don’t conspire. The Empire is in decline; it will do what is necessary to protect itself in that decline from enemies both foreign and domestic. All the conspiracy theories about who, what, how and when will not change that if those unhappy days comes in our lifetimes. All they will do is keep us too divided to recognize what’s happening.

My personal theory is, it’s better to spend whatever time we have between now and then, planting our gardens or securing our food supplies, finding ways now to do more with less, making our homes less energy dependent, finding ways to use things we might have thrown away, getting to know our neighbors, localizing our needs and making our communities stronger. I just think those things are far more useful to us (though probably more difficult and less entertaining) than picking through conspiracy theories.

10 Responses to Conspiracy Theories

I think I would agree with most of what you are thinking here. There’s one exception I would take. You said: “The Empire is in decline; it will do what is necessary to protect itself in that decline from enemies both foreign and domestic.”

(I wrote the following before realizing that your above sentence probably means the same as I’m trying to express here. If this is true, then I agree… and must say, “Never mind!”)

My view is that indeed the Empire is in decline but it is BECAUSE of what it is doing, not that it is protecting the country at all.. It is the corporatocracy / plutocracy outside and inside our government that is ruining the strengths of this country and taking it down from within. It’s not a conspiracy in the sense that you were discussing here. I agree with you on that. But it is with all the other machinations of propaganda and manipulation that the destruction is coming about. We are being destroyed from within our government and in the private sector which inserts its own selfish desires into the business of our government.

Your solution on a personal level is as good as any. Too bad so many of us have lost our “earthy” skills. We’re going to need them as much as our ancestor’s did before very long. Did you see Bill Moyers’ discussion this week? If you didn’t, go here:

He and his three guests put it out there in as direct a way as I’ve heard lately. Thanks for your thoughts, too.

Hi again, Cat. Yes, exactly. The Empire needs the TBTF banks, the multinational corporations, etc. to maintain itself (to the great detriment of the nation buried under these accoutrements of Empire), but their greed is sucking the life out of the country – as is the whole greed driven global network doing to other countries. Sort of like the snake eating its own tail.

Thanks for the video. I caught the last half of Moyers yesterday. I’ll have to watch this on my tenant’s computer. (He’s a tech guy so he has a whizbang computer setup, while it would take my old computer half the day to load this. 😀 )

That video link is not working….”This video does not exist”…..at least for me. Could you say who the guests were, because just about all of Moyer’s vids are pretty direct in one way or another?
I’d like to see it.

Your post is thought-provoking Linda. I started to watch the Bill Moyers interview of Glenn Greenwald and decided I’d seen enough when he started talking about the dangers inherent in an open society. We (both Canada and the U.S.) like to portray our societies as open, but they’re not. There is much that goes on behind closed doors. There is much distrust. There is much blaming. There is much protectionism. There is a status quo to be upheld.

For me, the problem is that too much of western society has become “too big to fail” and will, of course, fail. Western society, big countries like the U.S., Canada and Australia aren’t sustainable. I believe we’re meant to live tribally, know our neighbours and trust that we’re all in this together. Presently, that’s not possible.

Hi Infinitea, welcome to the blog and thanks for your comment. I suppose we’re still more opens societies than many, but certainly more closed than we once were. It’s breathtaking, the speed with which laws, executive orders and even SC rulings have been put in place in the twelve years since 9/11 that can shut us down in virtually an instant if/when the government finds it necessary. I agree, too, that our way of life in the developed countries is no longer sustainable. And while it’s not possible right now to live the way you describe, I do think that, like guerrilla gardeners, we can take “stealth” actions within our own lives and neighborhoods that will lay the way for a transition to that more sustainable living at the local levels where we are all in it together.